Ford in Command

The party last week was not really a surprise--not with the Navy band beating out rock'n'roll, not with some 2,200 presidential aides and secretaries and third assistant deputies all crammed into the East Room of the White House--but Jerry Ford beamed and chuckled and acted just as though he had forgotten it was his own 62nd birthday. His doctor had given him a checkup and pronounced him fit, and so did Comedian Flip Wilson, who came to the party as Nurse Geraldine in a red wig and white uniform. Nobody minded that a little fun was made of the President. On the walls there were cartoons of his spill on the steps of Air Force One when he arrived in Salzburg last June.

The scene was typical of the new and relaxed mood at the White House, and across the nation, as the President nears the end of his first year in office. Not even Ford's opponents can deny that he has performed far better than anyone had reason to expect. The child of Congress has become the political master of the White House. He is no intellectual, he is no innovator, but his candor, diligence and common sense have gained respect for his presidency. Few people crack jokes any more about his inability to chew gum and walk at the same time. Nor do they ask him, as a reporter did last fall, whether he is "intellectually up to the job of being the President." The Harris Poll, which showed him trailing Ted Kennedy by 43% to 50% as recently as last April, now puts him in front by the same margin. A Georgia survey indicates that he is also strong among conservatives. In a state that gave George Wallace more votes than either Richard Nixon or Hubert Humphrey in 1968, Ford trounces the Alabaman by 51.6% to 40.2%.

Ford's current stature is based partly on his successes: his series of vetoes of Democratic spending measures, his rescue of the Mayaguez from the Cambodians, his growing forcefulness in dealing with foreign leaders. But his popularity rests, above all, on the change of tone he has brought to the White House. In contrast to his immediate predecessors, he is approachable, conciliatory and not consumed by personal ambition. He has divested the presidency of its imperial pretensions--with the invaluable assistance of his close-knit but independent-minded family (see page 10). So intent is he on demythologizing the nation's highest office that he has put a virtual ban on the playing of Hail to the Chief; he prefers to hear bands strike up the University of Michigan fight song, The Victors.

Ford is obviously at home in the White House; more important, he seems to be at home with himself, secure enough to take criticism and attack without resorting to the vengeful tactics of previous Chief Executives, much less the illegal activities of Richard Nixon. His enemies' list, if he has one, must be the shortest on record. By his own behavior, he has blotted out the sordidness of the Nixon years. It was no inconsiderable achievement to free the Republican Party from the stigma of Watergate and deprive the Democrats of an issue they might have used for many years to come. Ford has, in effect, restored the presidency to the American people, and the response has been one of relief and gratitude.

In a sense, he has taken the American public into his confidence. Only once did he veer from this aim when, out of the blue, he granted the unindicted Nixon a full pardon--an act that was much criticized at the time but makes political sense in hindsight. With one stroke, Ford largely removed Nixon and the Watergate obsession from the American scene. In general, he has run the most open White House since Theodore Roosevelt. He is available not only to aides, Cabinet officers and Congressmen, but also to journalists, business and labor leaders, sports stars and beauty queens.

Ford enjoys the political life and never seems to get enough of it. Aides are forever trying to pull him away from fund raising dinners where he not only downs the rubbery chicken with apparent relish but stays on for the last windy speech as well. When he returned to Michigan last week for a music festival, the youthful audience welcomed him with cheers and leaps that made them seem like the "jumpers" of the Kennedy days.

It was not an easy transition for Ford--from the amiable disorganization of Congress to the harsh requirements of the presidency. "He has had to change a lot of his habits," says a White House aide. "He realizes that there are so many demands on his time that he has had to become more organized." Assisting the reorganization is his ambitious chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, who regulates the flow of people and paper in and out of the Oval Office. When Ford first took over, he was often content to have verbal reports on critical matters. Now he wants them on paper so that he can scrutinize them with care.

Ford signals the beginning of a meeting by lighting his pipe and waving it. If a speaker wanders off the subject or takes too long, the President is apt to start fidgeting with his telltale pipe or ask somebody else for his opinion. "He is never rude," says a White House aide, "but he makes things move. He has not lost his human touch, though there is a sharper edge."

James Lynn, director of the Office of Management and Budget, gives the President credit for bringing fresh ideas to almost any subject. "In meeting after meeting," says Lynn, "he comes up with an amended option that improves our position. I say that with some chagrin because I've got an ego of my own, and after my office puts in literally hundreds of hours of work on these things, I feel a certain dismay that he has brought up something we did not think of."

In the interest of a free and open exchange of ideas, Ford has assembled one of the most impressive Cabinets in recent history. All of its members have had distinguished careers in their respective fields, and five of them hold doctorates. Attorney General Edward Levi, formerly president of the University of Chicago, is rebuilding the Justice Department that was so badly compromised during the Nixon years. Secretary of Labor John Dunlop, a former economics professor and dean at Harvard, has made a specialty of union negotiations. F. David Mathews, Ford's nominee for Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, was president of the University of Alabama for six years. And Henry Kissinger and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, both inherited from Nixon, remain the Cabinet's heavyweights.

Characteristically, Ford does not seem the least bit intimidated by the high-powered brains around him. In fact, he is giving them considerable independence and--most important in power-sensitive Washington--he allows them to see him whenever they wish, a liberty Nixon never granted. Ford also expects them to disagree and would be disappointed if they did not. After a lively recent session, Schlesinger remarked, "Mr. President, this is the best faculty meeting I've attended in 15 years."

Ford got off to a shaky start in foreign affairs, the area of Government where he had the least experience. He let Kissinger take the lead and admitted as much. Both he and Kissinger seemed helpless as South Viet Nam and Cambodia collapsed, and they harshly blamed Congress for refusing their futile request for last-minute increases in military aid. But the President mounted an impressive operation to remove the refugees without the bloodshed that had been predicted. Then he was handed an opportunity to display his mettle. The Cambodians seized the merchant vessel Mayaguez, and the President responded by sending in the Marines. The ship and its 39 crewmen were rescued at the cost of the lives of 41 U.S. servicemen. The use of force may have been theatrical and excessive, as critics charge. But Ford did give the world a lesson in the dangers of pushing the U.S. too far. His popularity at home shot up, especially among conservatives.

Since then, the President has increasingly emerged from the shadow of Kissinger. He has held personal well-publicized talks with Soviet Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin. He has markedly improved his grasp of foreign affairs (see interview page 14). As a result, he speaks out more confidently. He has recently been at pains to stress the U.S. commitment to South Korea and suggest the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons in its defense.

The Russian and Chinese reactions to Ford remain ambiguous. U.S. allies, on the other hand, are relieved. Fearful at first that Ford would not measure up to the job, they now seem confident that he will provide sufficient leadership. Observes a senior official in the West German government: "Ford is seen here as a straightforward man who doesn't waver. He also has a feel for international affairs and steers a very clear course." Though Ford is considered to lack Nixon's acumen and cunning in foreign affairs, he is regarded as more predictable and hence more reliable. Says Japanese Economist Nobutane Kiuchi: "The last thing the current world situation needs is aggressive, spectacular leadership. The times call for patient, solid, if plodding efforts, not bold, drastic actions."

That may be just as true on the domestic front, for Ford presides over a nation that returned overwhelming Democratic majorities in the last election. Indeed, he looked last fall as if he would be a caretaker President at the mercy of Capitol Hill. That did not prove to be the case. The Democrats turned out to have too many members for their own good, and their leadership splintered. They failed to muster enough votes to override presidential vetoes of key spending bills providing for more federal housing subsidies, more public service jobs, higher farm price supports, and environmental controls on strip mining. With his 25 years' experience in the House,

Ford exploited his advantage. Knowing instinctively which legislators to approach and which to avoid, he got on the phone and requested their help to sustain his vetoes.

As a result, Ford has mostly had his way on domestic issues. The $23 billion tax cut passed by Congress was more than he wanted, but his Administration has largely been able to set the pace of the recovery from the recession, which is much too slow to suit the Democrats. Inflation has been cut by more than half, to 5.1%, but unemployment remains distressingly high at nearly 9%. Contrary to expectations, the President has also kept the upper hand with his controversial energy program, which aims at raising the price of domestic oil and natural gas in order to reduce consumption and stimulate production. Unable to agree among themselves and afraid of retaliation at the polls because of higher prices, the Democrats have failed to pass an alternative program. Last week Ford announced that he would decontrol the price of oil over a 30-month period; once again, the Democrats reacted negatively by threatening to vote against the move. They contend that removal of controls would add to inflation and unduly reward the oil companies. But there is a certain amount of give in the position of both sides; eventually a compromise is likely to be hammered out.

Though he has been farsighted in his chosen areas of competence, especially energy, the President has not provided anything resembling a blueprint for the nation. That would not be in keeping with his temper or his inclinations. "Ford is a prudent, careful builder," says a close friend and adviser. "When he came in, he bent a little leftward. Recently he's been tilting a little rightward." He does not want to provide his opponents on the right, chiefly Ronald Reagan, with any ammunition. But some activists on the White House staff are aware that a problem that is deferred may be harder to cope with later. At Ford's direction, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller recently asked all Cabinet officers for their priorities, and is currently drawing up policy options for the President on such matters as welfare reform and national health insurance. But Ford is not likely to act until next January when he delivers his State of the Union address.

Ford has made a success of the presidency largely by being himself. Even his limitations are perceived as pluses, in contrast to Nixon's. He is trusted, in part, because he does not appear to aim very high. He suits the wary, conservative temper of the times. But that attitude is not likely to endure forever. As the economy recovers, aspirations may rise along with it, and old problems will be rediscovered. Ford's vetoes might then be regarded as obstructionist rather than prudent. A continued high rate of unemployment, with its special impact on minorities, is an issue that Democrats could turn to their advantage. Even before the 1976 election, the President may have to face up to the soaring cost of medical care, the steadily rising crime rate, the breakdown of the cities and the crumbling of mass transportation. His view--widely welcomed at present--that Government should do less and that national thrift is in order could begin to seem to many people like a do-nothing policy. Along with this, "charisma"--a cliche not recently heard--might return to the political vocabulary.

For the moment, the President appears to be politically secure, protected on both his left and right flanks, monopolizing the coveted middle ground. With the Democrats in disarray, no serious rival for the presidency has emerged. Reagan may make a try for the Republican nomination, but Ford operatives are adroitly heading him off. The President picked three notable conservatives to manage his campaign: Howard ("Bo") Callaway, former Secretary of the Army; David Packard, who served as Under Secretary of Defense; and Dean Burch, a onetime adviser to Barry Goldwater and past chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Ford has thus left little room for Reagan to maneuver. He has championed free enterprise and attacked Government regulation. He has urged continued heavy defense spending. He has rather cold-bloodedly neutralized the conservatives' hostility to Rockefeller by stressing the fact that the President and the Vice President are not a team and the G.O.P. delegates will be free to select the Vice President. Privately, Ford has no intention of dropping Rocky, who he keeps insisting is not really a liberal. He admires his Veep's abilities and needs him on the ticket to win independent and Democratic votes in the election.

For all his present strength, Ford's election is not a foregone conclusion. Much depends on events beyond his control. If Middle East negotiations collapse, if the Arab states impose another oil embargo, if North Korea invades South Korea, the President could once again find himself in a politically hazardous position. At best, the state of the economy, with continued high unemployment, will damage his chances; and as one aide says, "It may be a narrow prosperity he's enjoying--a reverse of some kind could hurt him badly." But at the moment, he can take satisfaction in no longer being an accidental President fearing the taint of the man who chose him. The caretaker is in the process of becoming the proud owner of the White House, and it will not be easy to dislodge him.

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